Newsdesk Archive

Earlier this month, the planet Mercury crossed the face of the Sun, as seen from Earth. Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit, Mercury usually appears to pass over or under the Sun. (CLICK ON LINK TO SEE FULL IMAGE) The above time-lapse sequence, taken from a balcony in Belgium on May 7, shows the entire transit.

A special panel of the Japanese Archaeological Association on Saturday discredited the sites disgraced archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura helped excavate and claimed dated back to the early and middle Paleolithic period after finding fabrications at 162 sites in nine prefectures. The special committee's findings settle the issue from an academic perspective.

A few years ago we learned that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were not always the workaholics we long imagined. Far from slogging from one hunt to the next, they had ample hours for play and art. Farming, the discovery seemed to suggest, was the comparative drudgery, tying our ancestors to one place. Now archaeologists in southern Utah have uncovered evidence that suggests some of our ideas about early farmers may also miss the mark. Within a fortress of rust-colored cliffs in Utah's remote Kanab Desert, a crew of archaeologists discovered the remains of a prehistoric farmstead hidden in a juniper forest. It was occupied for about a century, 1,300 years ago, when a group of people known as the Anasazi roamed Utah's Red Rock Country.

Bent over a slab worn down by time and use, Omaid employs centuries-old skills to mix ground-up stone, glass and metals to make colors for the tiles to restore Herat's magnificent mosque, the Masjid-i-Jami. Working in the gloom, Wakhil Ahmed, 30, fires lapis blue, turquoise, yellow and green tiles for the mosque that he has worked on for 20 years.

Russian Soyuz rockets could soon be launching from the European spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana. The proposal is part of a package of measures designed to restructure the European launch business and rescue it from its current parlous financial state. On Tuesday, ministers from the European Space Agency's (Esa) member states must consider the plans and decide whether they are worth the requested extra investment from taxpayers and industry of about one billion euros ($1.18bn).

Scientists have taken a step towards finding out why memory deteriorates with age. Researchers in the United States have found that memory loss may be linked to so-called brain tangles. These occur when twisted fragments of proteins within nerve cells clog up the cells. Large numbers of these tangles are already known to cause Alzheimer's disease.

NOBODY likes being late for an appointment. So it would be a boon indeed if you could arrive somewhere before setting out. That is what Daniel Gauthier and his colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina have managed to do, after a fashion, with pulses of light. Light normally travels fastest in a vacuum. But on May 22nd Dr Gauthier revealed to a meeting of the optics division of the American Physical Society, in Boulder, Colorado, that this is not always the case.

We have known for 40 years that space weather affects the Earth, which is buffeted by a 'wind' from the Sun, but only now are we learning more about its precise origins. Solving the mystery of the solar wind has been a prime task for ESA's SOHO spacecraft. Its latest findings, announced on 20 May 2003, may overturn previous ideas about the origin of the 'fast' solar wind, which occurs in most of the space around the Sun. Earlier results from SOHO established that the gas of the fast wind leak through magnetic barriers near the Sun's visible surface. Straight, spoke-like features called plumes have been seen rising from the solar atmosphere at the polar regions, where much of the fast wind comes from.. According to previous ideas, the gas of the fast wind streams out in the gaps between the plumes.

A massive survey of galaxies orbiting each other has revealed how dark matter, the unseen stuff that is inferred to make up 27% of the Universe, tugs on the 4% that is the visible matter of stars, planets and dust. By measuring the velocity of satellite galaxies as they pass around larger ones, the study confirms1 that dark matter's diffuse gravitational pull speeds galactic orbits just as current theories predict. This is also the latest and best evidence that galaxies sit at the centre of giant clouds of dark matter.

They are calling it the "world wild web" and the most comprehensive online reference source on the world's most endangered species. The ARKive website opened for business in Britain this week in a flurry of media interest, generated by grandees of British wildlife broadcasting such as David Attenborough and by endorsements from conservation scientists from around the world. But how useful is it? Is it meant for schools or research, for education or play? It is first and foremost a place for images, both still and moving, of charismatic and endangered species.

Although scorpions are probably one of the most recognizable animals in the world, few creatures are as enigmatic or feared. Even in this modern world, misconceptions still perpetuate amongst most people. Scorpions are secretive creatures that usually retreat at the slightest disturbance. In many habitats they represent a major predatory force acting upon a variety of small creatures. Scorpions evolved from aquatic creatures that lived some 450 million years ago, way before the dinosaurs existed. In those early days of evolutionary experimentation, they attained a length of over 1m. Scorpions have since then scaled down in size and have wedged themselves into their own niche habitats within the general environment.

ISAN BAKHRIAT, Iraq Mobs of treasure hunters are tearing into Iraqi archaeological sites, stealing urns, statues, vases and cuneiform tablets that often date back 3,000 years and more to Babylon and Sumer, archaeologists say. Here at the site of what was once Isin, an Aramean city that first arose around 1900 B.C., about 150 young men armed with shovels, knives and sometimes semiautomatic weapons have been digging from dawn to dusk and extracting relics almost hourly.

Kathy Lombardi held out her open hand to David Anderson, displaying two flat, circular pieces of ivory-colored shell joined together by a tiny metal chain. Yesterday morning, when Aron Schmid discovered them inside the Fort Pitt Blockhouse, the cuff links joined more than 2,000 other artifacts unearthed during the third and final round of blockhouse excavations this spring.

A lecture presented partly to raise funds for the newly-established Chair of Coptic Studies at the American University in Cairo (AUC) proved an open forum for voicing concerns about the preservation of Egypt's monuments, particularly its Coptic heritage. "In the last 30 years, inspectors of antiquities have carried out so-called excavations at several Coptic sites and in many cases did not even publish a preliminary report on their work," said Gawdat Gabra, who took his degree on Coptic studies in Germany and is widely published in the field of his specialisation.

AGUA FRIA, N.M. - The patch of land above the sandy riverbed is vacant now, snakeweed and rabbit brush and juniper its residents, jackrabbits its visitors. Centuries ago a rancho stood along this stretch, home to colonists who followed Spanish explorers north from Mexico to the frontier of New Spain.

The world's only preserved copy of an Etruscan gold book was donated to Bulgaria's National Museum of History. The director of the museum broke the news on Thursday. A Bulgarian who lives in Macedonia presented the museum with the unique artifact on condition of anonymity. The book contains six pages and is the only wholly perserved copy known to archeology so far. Except the ancient text, the 23.82-carat gold pages carry images of warriors and a siren.

It is getting very close now - just over a week until Europe launches Mars Express, its first solo mission to the Red Planet. Ared Schnorhk, the principal mechanical and propulsion engineer on the project, updates BBC News Online readers on the final preparations. Just as motor vehicles need fuelling before long journeys, so spacecraft require full tanks before they set off to visit other worlds.

The twenty-first century could see more warming, more quickly, than was previously estimated, hints a new approach to modelling the Earth's climate1. Average global temperatures could be 5.5 ºC higher by 2100, the model estimates. That's around 1.5 ºC higher than one commonly accepted forecast.

The world's biggest-ever bloom opened in Germany yesterday. At more than 2.7 metres tall, the Titan Arum flowering in the University of Bonn Botanical Garden beats the previous record - set 70 years ago - by 7 centimetres. More than 2,000 people have so far rushed to witness the event, as the spadix, the blossom's fleshy central column, is expected to collapse on Saturday afternoon.

An immense collision of asteroids took place in the Solar System some 500 million years ago. Four million years after the breakup of a giant asteroid, the Earth experienced a massive bombardment of meteorites. Bombardment from space at that time was 100 times as powerful as what our planet experiences nowadays. Parts of these meteorites have been found in limestone sediments in Sweden. They all contain a typical composition of minerals that allows one to identify them as a part of a giant asteroid, which was broken apart as a result of a collision with another giant rock. This was said by scientists from Rice University (USA) and GÆteborg University (Sweden), who had studied the sediments in desolate quarries in Sweden.

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL excavation has unearthed a huge lost abbey that was host to King Henry VIII's coffin within the grounds of Brentford's Syon Park. The three day excavation programme, which finished on Thursday, May 8th, was carried out by a team of archaeological experts together with Channel Four's Time Team', in an area adjacent to Syon House, to search for the original foundations of the lost Bridgettine Abbey.

A javelin thrower, a dead deer and a pile of flint chippings are bringing us closer to our Stone Age ancestors. David Derbyshire reports Sherlock Holmes appreciated the importance of stabbing dead animals with spears in the name of science. The fictional detective once told Watson over breakfast while brandishing a ferocious weapon:

A 400,000-year-old stone object unearthed in Morocco could be the world's oldest attempt at sculpture. The figurine was found 15 metres below ground That is the claim of a prehistoric art specialist who says the ancient rock bears clear signs of modification by humans.

A 460-year-old stone table used in an ancient temple has been unearthed in Qingxian County of Hebei Province. Workers on a construction site in Juedao village found the relic, a columnar stone object 53 centimeters high and 33 centimeters in diameter with a pronounced bulge around its middle.

Agricultural techniques perfected by Inca farmers 500 years ago are beginning to have a dramatic effect on the incomes of today's farmers in Pampachiri, one of the poorest areas of Peru. An ancient water transport system, developed by the Wira people and refined by the Incas, has been restored by the Cusichaca Trust NGO using traditional methods.

Scientists may have identified what could be the best place to look for life on the Red Planet. It is the Russell Crater in Mars' southern hemisphere. Observations of the region made during the local autumn and spring, when frost covers the dunes and then recedes, indicate liquid water could be present on the surface at certain times of the year. Detailed analysis suggests this water could be mixing with soil to create frequent mudflows.

Cameras are to be installed on remote Scottish islands to enable people on the mainland to watch their colonies of sea birds and other wildlife. The proposals for St Kilda have just received the go-ahead after winning grants totalling £120,000. The scheme will use technology developed for Channel 4's Big Brother television show. The St Kilda archipelago - owned by the National Trust for Scotland - is home to by far the largest sea bird colonies anywhere in the UK.

More than 1,000 people climbed Mount Everest during the past 50 years but none thought to record the rock types beneath their feet. Now, after six years exploring the region, an earth scientist from Oxford University has created the first ever geological map of the mountain. The 1:100,000-scale map, which covers around 1,500 square kilometres and straddles the Nepal-Tibet border, shows that rocks at the very top of the world's highest peak were laid down in a shallow tropical sea some 400 million years ago.

AN ULSTER historian today called for changes to be made to planning legislation following the discovery of the remains of a 1,000-year-old castle by developers constructing apartments in a Co Antrim resort. Developers working at a site at Upper Main Street in Portrush have uncovered what is believed to be the walls and foundations of the long forgotten Portrush Castle, which dates back to the twelfth century.

The Romans invented many things but it may come as a surprise to some that they could also be responsible for a rudimentary version of virtual reality. Researchers at the University of Warwick have uncovered 3D paintings in the ancient villas of Pompeii which used tricks similar to virtual reality to impress guests.

The virus believed to cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) may have come to Earth from outer space, according to scientists writing in a leading British medical journal. In a letter to The Lancet, the scientists, led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of Britain's Cardiff University, say the Sars coronavirus is so unlike other viruses that an extra-terrestrial origin is logical.

The Ministry of Culture has approved an emergency plan to restore the tomb of Amenhotep III in the Valley of Kings. UNESCO, which has given a $600,000 grant for the restoration, will be working in collaboration with the Japanese government to preserve wall paintings and inscriptions and install ventilation, lighting and security systems. The tomb of Amenhotep III tomb will be opened to the public for the first time ever since it was discovered in the late l790s during the years of French Expedition to Egypt.

Author, anthropologist, and botanical explorer Wade Davis is a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. Together with National Geographic Cultures Initiative photographer Chris Rainier, Davis recently embarked on the first of a series of expeditions over the next five years to study the web of cultural diversity around the Earth.

Summary: Summer weather is notoriously difficult to forecast because there is no jet stream over the United States to stabilize atmospheric conditions. Nonetheless, meteorologists believe there are indications that this year it may be hotter than the recorded average for the southern part of the country while the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts of the U.S. may be battered by more hurricanes than normal. A lot depends on La Niña, the name scientists give to a sustained cooling of surface temperatures of the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

Astronomers peering deep into the Milky Way have accidentally discovered what appears to be the third-closest star system to Earth. And more unnoticed stellar neighbours may be forthcoming. The new star, catchily named SO25300.5+165258, is only 7.8 light years away - a mere stone's throw in our 100,000 light-year-wide galaxy - but is so faint it hasn't been previously seen.

Scientists have solved one of natures most enduring mysteries - how the monarch butterfly is able to navigate more than 2,000 miles on its annual migration route. A series of experiments has revealed how this tiny insect is able to marry a sophisticated biological clock with the sun's position so that it can fly across the North American continent without losing its way.

If people who lived around the seventh century B.C. could miraculously be brought back to life, they would complain: ``We have always thought that now is the Jomon period. We didn't know it is now the Yayoi period.'' An archaeological study reported Monday was of a nature that may make it necessary to reassess when the Yayoi period started, apparently several centuries earlier. Better still, a review of the line drawn between the Yayoi period and the earlier Jomon period seems to be in order.

The history of the Lahore Fort's conservation is being compiled by the federal archaeology department under a project initiated by Unesco. According to an official, the Pakistan Institute of Archaeological Research will house a 'documentation centre' to computerize record of all the 21 monuments inside the Lahore Fort.

The first international symposium at the ancient Roman city of Nicopolis, which took place 18 years ago, was significant for its time, but was confined to bibliographical data. Since then, something has happened to jolt the chronic indifference of the Culture Ministry. Services have gone into action, Nicopolis has become a ministry priority, excavations have begun and the first plans to highlight its monuments have been made.

Humans have done too little to find sustainable ways of sharing the Earth's resources, a US scientist says. Dr Peter Raven, says the rich world in particular is not confronting the extinction crisis. He believes we know scarcely 15% of animal and plant species alive today. And most of those we are driving to extinction will vanish without us ever having known they were here.

Scientists have "entangled" two sub-atomic particles separated by about a millimetre, a feat that might pave the way for powerful quantum computers in the future. Quantum entanglement on a chip: Significant scaling up When two particles are entangled they are somehow connected because the fate of one depends upon the other, no matter how far apart they are.

The short-faced bear was one of many prehistoric creatures that roamed near Lake Lahtontan between 9,000 and 20,000 years ago. Lake Lahontan, as the giant lake was called, reached its high point 15,000 years ago. The climate then was much different than it is today because a massive glacier of the last ice age stretched down to the Canadian border, deflecting polar jet streams toward the southwestern United States.

Claims of "unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena" are rare in the abstract of a reputable scientific paper. But the latest report by photonics crystal pioneer John Joannopoulos and his group at MIT, soon to be published in Physical Review Letters, does not disappoint. The researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to shift the frequency of light beams to any desired colour, with near 100 per cent efficiency. "The degree of control over light really is quite shocking," comments photonics expert Eli Yablonovitch at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Falling surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean are leading climate scientists to predict that La Niña is set to replace El Niño. But the rapid switch has highlighted the difficulty of modelling such changes in climate. Both La Niña and El Niño affect weather conditions across the globe. The mild El Niño seen in 2002 caused, for example, severe droughts and wildfires in Australia. La Niña will bring more rain here, and in Indonesia and South-East Asia. But it will also result in more active hurricanes in the Atlantic.

New X-ray images of two very distant galaxies have revealed what appears to be a boom-and-bust cycle in the early evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The images, taken with the orbiting Chandra X-ray observatory, show huge clouds of high-energy particles surrounding two galaxies, 3C294 and 4C41.17. These are located 10 and 12 billion light years away respectively.

For centuries, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon have been saddled with two opposing stereotypes. One view is that they're violent savages in need of a civilizing influence. The other is that they're noble and pure people uncorrupted by the decadence of modern society. Whichever view is true, this is certain: The modern world is closing in fast on these unusual people and Flora Lu Holt is watching.

It would be a shame to be emotionally unprepared on the day that aliens finally pay us a visit from outer space, according to Slovenian artist Igor Stromajer. Stromajer, in an art project opening Saturday, hopes to prime the Finnish town of Rauma for close encounters of the emotional kind, which could include hugs and kisses, but also trauma.

A supermarket chain in Denmark has sparked an outcry by selling flip-flop sandals featuring images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, with a local Catholic parish filing charges against the store for blasphemy. "We Catholics pray to Jesus and Mary and now they want us to walk all over them. That's blasphemy and a serious and indecent violation of the religious sentiments of believers," said Johannes Gram Kulis, second-in-charge at the parish in Vordingborg, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Copenhagen.

Evidence which will help complete the jigsaw of medieaval times in Kendal has been found during excavation works at the rear of 110 Stricklandgate (behind Prontaprint). Cess pits, broken pottery, animal bones and iron nails have been located following digs by Lancaster-based archaeo-logical group, Oxford Archaeology North.

DNA extracted by Chinese scientists from the brain of a woman who lived more than two millennia ago will provide valuable clues to the ancient world. DNA extracted by Chinese scientists from the brain of a woman who lived more than two millennia ago will provide valuable clues to the ancient world.

The postponement of the audacious Rosetta mission to chase down and land on a comet has put a 70-million-euro (£50m) hole in the European space budget for this year. Officials must now juggle their funds to pay for a new flight for the probe early in 2004. Rosetta is currently being stored in a "clean" facility at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Scientists have confirmed they want to send the spacecraft to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko now that the original target, Comet Wirtanen, is no longer reachable in the desired timeframe.

Ghosts are the mind's way of interpreting how the body reacts to certain surroundings, say UK psychologists. A chill in the air, low-light conditions and even magnetic fields may trigger feelings that "a presence" is in a room - but that is all they are, feelings. This explanation of ghosts is the result of a large study in which researchers led hundreds of volunteers around two of the UK's supposedly most haunted locations - Hampton Court Palace, England, and the South Bridge Vaults in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rich countries must pay much more to save endangered creatures and their homes from extinction, UK conservationists say. Despite international agreement on conserving biodiversity, they argue, animals, birds and plants continue to vanish. They say the developed world has failed to live up to its promises to pay to slow the damage. And they damn it as immoral for leaving the poor countries to shoulder the burden.

Mathematics is unpicking the secrets of a centuries-old nautical skill called splicing - joining two ropes together end to end by interweaving their strands1. Chris Leech of rope and fibre consultants Technology Tension International has calculated the mechanical properties of three different kinds of splice, to understand what holds them together and what rope properties give the best result.

Albert Einstein's writings about science, politics and travel are now just a click away on the Internet. More than 230 scientific manuscripts, 740 non-scientific essays and 5 travel diaries have been digitized and entered into a free, searchable database, hosted by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Many of the articles have never been seen by the public before, says Diana Kormos Buchwald, director of the Einstein Papers Project.

The perplexing relationship between craters and the size, shape and speed of the meteorites that may have made them has driven a team of physicists back to the sand pit. Having dropped lots of balls of various sizes from various heights they conclude that, on grainy ground, at least, the depth of a depression is a function of the diameter of the projectile that made it1. It had been thought that crater depth is linked only to crater width.

This week in Budapest, Hungary, an international gathering of scientists will explore how to save a creature that itself symbolizes doom: the vulture. At the 6th World Conference on Birds of Prey and Owls, several sessions will focus on the Oriental white-backed vulture, Gyps bengalensis, once the most common bird of prey in Asia and possibly in the world. Vultures used to be as numerous as "pigeons in cities of the United States," says Rick Watson, a raptor ecologist and director of international programs at the Peregrine Fund in Boise, Idaho.

The original copy of the Book of Psalms, which dates back to the 3rd or 4th century AD is kept inside the Coptic Museum, said Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). In statements to MENA, Hawas dismissed the reports that the Psalms of Prophet David were stolen from the Coptic Museum. Hawas said the Psalms are religious hymns and litanies, adding France has got a non-original copy of this book that dates back to the 18th century.

There's a lot riding on a new finding that suggests Yayoi Pottery Culture began in Japan at least 500 years earlier than traditionally believed. Archaeologists are perplexed because it could mean rewriting the nation's ancient history. It would also drastically alter perceptions of when rice cultivation-hallmark of the Yayoi period-first reached Japan and in what circumstances, say researchers and others.

A police fingerprint expert has been helping archaeologists track the work of a 1st Century Roman potter. David Goodwin, head of Northamptonshire Police's Fingerprint Bureau, was drafted in to help prove fragments of pottery found in London were cast by the same man. A ceramics specialist at the Museum of London, approached the police for help after discovering prints on the ancient Roman relics.

NEW DELHI: A recent excavation funded by the Archaeological Survey of India has discovered a Buddha statue dating back to the 6th century along with other Indian sculptures in Sirpur, Chhattisgarh. Around 164 mounds have been found around the area of Sirpur of which only 10 have been excavated so far. The newly-revealed heritage site would definitely add to the existing USP of eco- and ethno tourism and would place Sirpur as an important place in the Buddhist tourist circuit, said A Jayathilak, managing director tourism, Chhattisgarh.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The United Nations cultural agency sounded an archaeological alarm Monday, saying the ground beneath Iraq is being stripped of its treasures by armies of illegal diggers and exhorting U.S.-led occupying forces to help stop the thievery. The plundering has been going on since the 1991 Gulf War but has increased in the chaos and anarchy that followed the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, UNESCO said.

He is one of the most revered artists in British history, a resounding success in architecture and design. Arch-disciple of "pure white space", Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it seems, may have had been guided by altogether darker forces. New research into the inspiration behind the work of Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald, has revealed surprising evidence that the couple incorporated into their work secret emblems, signs, and allusions from a variety of spiritual beliefs, including the occult. Among the best-known "occult" works are the much-reproduced watercolour The Wassail and his architectural masterpiece, the Buchanan Street Tea Room in Glasgow, as well as the Queen's Cross Church, now the headquarters of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

Archaeologists have discovered what they describe as a previously unknown ancient civilisation in Central America. The site, near the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, dates from before the Mayan era, and relics include what appears to be a centre for mass production of ceremonial columns. Researchers have been working on the site at El Cascal de Flor de Pino, near the town of Kukra Hill for six years. They've found evidence of an ancient town and several outlying villages, which developed around 2,700 years ago and lasted for a thousand years.

Europe has formally started the countdown clock for the launch of its Mars Express space probe, which will lift off for the Red Planet on Monday, 2 June. The UK science minister Lord Sainsbury set a digital timepiece going at the Royal Society in London, in the presence of senior European and British space officials. Mars Express, which is carrying the Beagle 2 lander, is set for a 1845 BST (2345 local time) launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS are to embark on one of the biggest excavations of Chester city centre. Plans have been drawn up for a project lasting up to three years to determine what lies beneath a large area centred on Northgate Street. The site is believed to guard some of the city's richest archaeological remains but has never been fully excavated. Experts hope it will help them to piece together the clearest picture yet of Roman Chester.

Egypt on Saturday unveiled six antiquities -- dating back thousands of years -- that were returned from North America, including a snake statuette that a Canadian woman gave away because she felt a Pharaonic curse had entered her house. The head of the country's antiquities board also announced that Egypt would recover the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses I, which was smuggled out of the country more than 100 years ago. The mummy will be returned in October from the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, said Zahi Hawass, the chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The latest twist in the debate over how much DNA separates humans from chimpanzees suggests we are so closely related that chimps should not only be part of the same taxonomic family, but also the same genus. The new study found that 99.4 percent of the most critical DNA sites are identical in the corresponding human and chimp genes. With that close a relationship, the two living chimp species belong in the genus Homo, says Morris Goodman of Wayne State University in Detroit.

(click on link to see image) What can you learn from looking into the depths of space? In an effort to find out true ages of stars in neighboring Andromeda galaxy's halo, astronomers stared into the galaxy giant with the new Advanced Camera for Surveys through the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting exposure of over three days is the deepest exposure in visible light ever taken, although shorter in duration than the multi-wavelength effort toward the Hubble Deep Field.

A retired British commander says Chinese navigators made the discovery in their expedition of 1421-23. Another researcher chronicles unrecognised contributions by the Chinese to science. Lam Pin Foo looks at their findings THE West has dominated numerous fields of human activities. Its dominance is so overwhelming that other nations have long accepted its technological superiority and innovative flair as worthy of emulation.

Seventeen ancient tombs, dating back to 206 BC to 1644 AD, were discovered in Shangluo City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province early this month. The tombs were all located in an area of 2,000 square meters. Among the 14 that have been unearthed so far, six were built in the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220), three in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), three in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and two in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

TORONTO -- If Queen Victoria was around today to see Upper Canada's first parliament buildings lost beneath an auto dealership she would have only one thing to say: "We are not amused." More than 300 people took time out of their Victoria Day celebrations to rally at King and Parliament Sts. yesterday, hoping to save the site of Ontario's original parliament buildings. They were protesting construction of the Downtown Fine Cars Porsche dealership on the site, which has become an eyesore.

The ice shell of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is probably about 25 kilometres (15 miles) thick, according to scientists. Researchers created a profile of Cilix crater near Europa's equator, and taking into account the elastic properties of ice, estimated the thickness of the icy crust. Beneath this crust there is probably an ocean of water kept liquid by heat from Europa's interior, and protected by the ice shield for tens of millions of years at least.

Britain's native bumblebees are under serious threat and gardeners should plant bumblebee-friendly plants to help save them, the National Trust and English Nature said on Friday. Intensive agriculture and a decrease in the number of insect-pollinated crops have led to a drastic decline in bumblebee numbers over the past 70 years, they said.

A python which was originally revered by the inhabitants of the village of Wasare, in western Kenya, for its fortune-bringing powers is now proving to be less of a blessing. The 16-foot-long python, Omweri, appeared in the village in February, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper says. But over the past few days it has begun to hatch dozens of eggs, prompting fears that Wasare may be swamped by its offspring. The new alarm comes after concern a week ago that heavy floods might wash Omweri and its eggs away.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The faults that crisscross Southern California may be capable of rupturing in concert to produce larger earthquakes than previously thought, according to several studies of the magnitude-7.9 quake that rocked Alaska last year. The November 3 Denali quake was the largest to strike on land in North America in nearly 150 years, but caused few injuries and little damage given the remoteness of the area. It ripped across 210 miles (340 kilometers) in two minutes, split glaciers and triggered thousands of landslides.

Researchers have altered genes in rats to create strains with genetic characteristics of their choosing - a long-sought tool for studying disease. The animals, called knockout rats, were stripped of a gene that suppresses breast cancer in humans and will help researchers to unravel the genetics of the disease1.

The remarkable visual vocabulary of cuttlefish, which change the colour of their skin in a flash for communication or camouflage, is being catalogued with the help of a mathematical technique borrowed from signal processing. Independent component analysis (ICA) was invented to untangle mixtures of signals. For example, it can pick out individual voices from the babble of a crowd.

Those who accept the authenticity of the Kensington Runestone had their beliefs reaffirmed after a presentation Monday by Dr. Richard Nielsen at the Runestone Museum. Nielsen, an engineer from Texas, has studied the linguistics of the stone for nearly 17 years. His research of factual evidence has led him to conclude that the Runestone is a genuine artifact and that it was carved by Viking explorers 130 years before Columbus is credited with "discovering" America.

Panamanian police announced Monday they had recovered about 300 stolen gold and ceramic Pre-Hispanic artifacts stolen in February from Panama City's Anthropology Museum. Several people were arrested in the operation, and police said that some museum staff may have been involved in the robbery of the pieces, which included ceramic vessels, jewelry and figurines.

Chinese scientists announced earlier this week they had successfully extracted DNA from the brain of an ancient female corpse dating back more than 2,000 years. Scientists with Jilin University in northeast China have finished five months of research and claimed it as a first for Chinese scientists to extract DNA from the brain of an ancient human.

VENOSA, Italy Amid rolling pastureland about 300 kilometers southeast of Rome, dust is flying. Workers carefully dig through crumbling sandstone deep beneath the surface of a grassy hillside. Stout wooden beams support a makeshift entrance and a labyrinth of newly exposed passageways that lead into an ancient underground maze. A loopy string of construction lamps illuminate the way.

The quarry where Britain's oldest human-like remains were found has been bought by English Heritage to enable further digging and conservation work at the site. The fossilised specimen of "Boxgrove Man", a hominid of the species Homo heidelbergensis, was found near Chichester in Sussex in 1993. The species is thought to have been the forerunner of Neanderthals in Europe. The archaeologist who found the hominid's shin bone said restoration of the quarry would start soon.

Work is almost finished on the first stage of a national project carried out by the Culture Ministry to secure the Giza pyramids area, said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. The project, whose first stage costs LE 43 million, aims to secure the pyramids area, considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt and the world, against tampering, encroachment and stealing, said Hosni.

Black diamonds found in the Gulf of Mexico might have been formed from crude oil, say researchers. These diamonds are unlikely to be a girl's best friend. They contain just a few dozen carbon atoms, equivalent to less than a billion billionth of a carat. But the molecules, called diamondoids, could have practical uses. Artificial versions are already used in drugs to treat Parkinson's disease and viral infections. The tiny diamonds could also provide molecular-scale girders for nanotechnology.

In the sea, most of us are half-blind - but the Moken are king. This Southeast Asian tribe of sea gypsies can see twice as clearly underwater as Europeans, researchers have found. The semi-nomadic Moken, who have settled on Thailand's Surin Islands, use their superior visual skills to dive for food on the ocean floor. It's not known whether the ability is learned or genetic.

A slow but clear change in the cloud cover of the planet Neptune suggests that the eighth planet from the sun has seasons much like Earth does, say astronomers studying pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. The images, taken over a six-year period, show a brightening of the banded clouds, mostly in the southern hemisphere, that shroud the planet, according to scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Baby seals can recognize their mother's voice in the hubbub of large dense breeding colonies as early as two days after birth, according to a study published in the current issue of the journal Animal Behavior. One of the few investigations of voice recognition in mammals, the study focuses on subantarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus tropicalis) living on the remote Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean.

A SCIENTIST who has spent the last five years building a robot in his garage to survey the seabed is about to hunt for a lost 16th Century wreck. Robin Burrows will search off the Scilly Isles in July using his submersible remotely-operated vehicle (ROV). He says the area he will be searching has more wrecks than anywhere else in the world. "There are several that nobody has ever found," he said.

The body is potentially of significant international archaeological interest, the National Museum of Ireland said yesterday. The headless body was discovered by a Co Offaly farmer as he was digging a drain close to his home. The skin was still intact on the upper torso, the clothes were preserved and there was a bracelet on the upper arm.

The number of "living" languages spoken in the world is dwindling faster than the decline in the planet's wildlife, according to a new study. A comparison of the factors affecting the loss of languages and the demise of wild animals has found that the world's 6,000-plus tongues are facing the biggest risk of extinction.

Developer Thomas Braconi expected to be building a subdivision on Vaughan Street in Middleborough by now, but 90 centuries of history got in the way. After a preliminary investigation last month showed the 18-acre property may contain archeological deposits dating back 9,000 years, the Planning Board put a site plan review of Braconi's proposal on hold until June 3, when it expects the developer to have completed a more thorough investigation of the site.

MADURAI: In a recent exploration at an Ayyanar temple near Kamudhi, the Department of Archaeology, Madurai, has discovered a ninth century A.D. Jain Thirthankara sculpture. According to a communique from its Assistant Director, C Santhalingam, the sculpture was located in the vicinity of the temple, two km west of Kamudhi. The two-feet high sculpture in the Arthapariyanka asana is slightly damaged in left cheek and ear.

Features in a Martian meteorite believed by some to be the fossilised remains of alien bacteria may have formed underwater, scientists claim. Researchers have found a "striking" match between microscopic features on underwater rocks and mineral deposits from Earth and microbe-like structures in the famous Martian meteorite ALH84001.

The repatriation of human remains currently held in UK museums and universities to indigenous peoples around the world will do immense damage to science. That is the claim of leading researchers who fear many hundreds of specimens that hold vital clues to our evolutionary past could soon be dispersed to be reburied, burnt or even smashed up.

Moonwatchers across the globe were treated to a lunar eclipse late on Thursday and early on Friday. It was visible from much of Europe, Africa and the Americas - where cloud did not obscure the show. The slow and subdued nature of lunar eclipses makes them less dramatic than solar eclipses and scientifically they are also less important - but they can still make a spectacle.

Many popular traditions in Egypt go back to the Fatimid era, characterised by a propensity to perpetuate festivities and celebrations, like Shamm el-Nessim, from ancient times. The Fatimids kept religious festivals never observed before -- Ashura and Prophet Mohamed's birthday, which fell this year on 13 May. They invented special treats for each occasion.

THE overnight appearance of dozens of bizarre crop circles in a field of sorghum has spooked a Sunshine Coast hinterland farmer and his workers. The phenomenon, which was accompanied by loud "zapping noises", a flash of green light, lost power and barking dogs has the Gowen family of Glass House Mountains flumoxed. Fifth generation land owner Kel Gowen said he was woken about midnight on Wednesday by two loud "zaps". His farm hand, Noel Brady, whose cottage overlooks the 4ha of sorghum, said he was also woken by the first zapping sound, which was followed by the loss of power and bright green flashes.

An astonishing 20,000 Canadians declared themselves to be followers of the religion of Jedi, the guardians of peace and justice in the Star Wars flicks, Statistics Canada reported today in the latest, and final, data to come from the 2001 census. Will the holy trinity one day be replaced with "in the name of Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker?" Not likely, says Denis Dion, a 44-year-old produce manager from just outside Vancouver who circulated an e-mail urging anyone who wanted to have fun with Canada's census to identify themselves as Jedi when asked about their religion.

SANSKRIT, in which classical Indian literature was composed, is among the world's oldest recorded languages. But putting works created over the last 3,000 years onto the Web has not been easy. Documents written in Devanagari, the script used for Sanskrit and other South Asian languages, can be scanned as images. But optical character recognition, or O.C.R., software for turning Devanagari texts into digital information that can be searched and reformatted has not been commercially available.